of her fierce looks on me.

"'It may not be your fault, Horace,' she said, 'if your nature is
incapable of comprehending what is great and generous in other natures
higher than yours. But the least you can do is to distrust your
own capacity of appreciation. For the future keep your opinions (on
questions which you don't understand) modestly to yourself. I have a
tenderness for you for your father's sake; and I take the most favorable
view of your conduct toward Mercy Merrick. I humanely consider it the
conduct of a fool.' (Her own words, Miss Roseberry. I assure you
once more, her own words.) 'But don't trespass too far on my
indulgence--don't insinuate again that a woman who is good enough (if
she died this night) to go to heaven, is _not_ good enough to be my
nephew's wife.'

"I expressed to you my conviction a little way back that it was doubtful
whether poor Lady Janet would be much longer competent to manage her own
affairs. Perhaps you thought me hasty then? What do you think now?

"It was, of course, useless to reply seriously to the extraordinary
reprimand that I had received. Besides, I was really shocked by a decay
of principle which proceeded but too plainly from decay of the mental
powers. I made a soothing and respectful reply, and I was favored in
return with some account of what had really happened at the Refuge. My
mother and my sisters were disgusted when I repeated the particulars to
them. You will be disgusted too.

"The interesting penitent (expecting Lady Janet's visit) was, of course,
discovered in a touching domestic position! She had a foundling baby
asleep on her lap; and she was teaching the alphabet to an ugly little
vagabond girl whose acquaintance she had first made in the street. Just
the sort of artful _tableau vivant_ to impose on an old lady--was it
not?

"You will understand what followed, when Lady Janet opened her
matrimonial negotiation. Having perfected herself in her part, Mercy
Merrick, to do her justice, was not the woman to play it badly. The
most magnanimous sentiments flowed from her lips. She declared that her
future life was devoted to acts of charity, typified, of course, by the
foundling infant and the ugly little girl. However she might personally
suffer, whatever might be the sacrifice of her own feelings--observe how
artfully this was put, to insinuate that she was herself in love with
him!--she could not accept from Mr. Julian Gray an honor of which she
was unw